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Shown Here:Reported in House (11/02/2018)

Union Calendar No. 786

115th CONGRESS2d Session

H. R. 6087

[Report No. 115–1005]

To authorize the Secretary of the Interior to recover the cost of processing administrative
protests for oil and gas lease sales, applications for permits to drill,
and right of way applications, and for other purposes.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

June 13, 2018

Ms. Cheney (for herself, Mr. Gianforte, Mr. Gohmert, Mr. Bishop of Utah, and Mr. Gosar) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Natural Resources

November 2, 2018

Additional sponsor: Miss González-Colón of Puerto Rico

November 2, 2018

Reported with an amendment, committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the
Union, and ordered to be printed

[Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert the part printed in italic]

[For text of introduced bill, see copy of bill as introduced on June 13, 2018]

A BILL

To authorize the Secretary of the Interior to recover the cost of processing administrative
protests for oil and gas lease sales, applications for permits to drill,
and right of way applications, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1.Short title.

This Act may be cited as the “Removing Barriers to Energy Independence Act”.

SEC. 2.Administrative protest process reform.

Section 17 of the Mineral Leasing Act (30 U.S.C. 226) is amended by adding at the end the
following:

“(q) Protest filing fee.—

“(1) IN GENERAL.—Before processing any protest filed under this section, the Secretary shall collect a filing fee
from the protestor to recover the cost for processing documents filed for
each administrative protest.

“(2) AMOUNT.—The filing fee shall be calculated as follows:

“(A) For each protest filed in a submission not exceeding 10 pages in length, the base filing fee shall
be $150.

“(B) For each submission exceeding 10 pages in length, an addition to the base filing fee, an assessment
of $5 per page in excess of 10 pages shall apply.

“(C) For protests that include more than one oil and gas lease parcel, right-of-way, or application for
permit to drill in a submission, an additional assessment of $10 per
additional lease parcel, right-of-way, or application for permit to drill
shall apply.

“(3) ADJUSTMENT.—

“(A) IN GENERAL.—Beginning on January 1, 2020, and annually thereafter, the Secretary shall adjust the filing fees
established in this subsection to whole dollar amounts to reflect changes
in the Producer Price Index, as published by the Bureau of Labor
Statistics, for the previous 12 months.

“(B) PUBLICATION OF ADJUSTED FILING FEES.—At least 30 days before the filing fees as adjusted under this paragraph take effect, the Secretary
shall publish notification of the adjustment of such fees in the Federal
Register.”.

Union Calendar No. 786

115th CONGRESS 2d Session

H. R. 6087

[Report No. 115–1005]

A BILL

To authorize the Secretary of the Interior to recover the cost of processing administrative
protests for oil and gas lease sales, applications for permits to drill,
and right of way applications, and for other purposes.

November 2, 2018

Reported with an amendment, committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the
Union, and ordered to be printed